Exclusive – Warnock not bitter over Palace sacking as axed boss hails Pardew appointment
Neil Warnock has told talkSPORT he believes Alan Pardew is the ideal choice to succeed him as Crystal Palace manager.
Pardew is expected to be confirmed as Palace’s new boss on Tuesday after a compensation deal was agreed with Newcastle.
Warnock, dismissed just four months into his reign after the 3-1 Boxing Day defeat to Southampton, believes Eagles chairman Steve Parish had the 53-year-old lined up for the job well before his sacking.
But he insists he holds no ill-feeling towards the club, as he always expected it to be a short-term appointment, and has backed Pardew to be a big hit at Selhurst Park.
Warnock, speaking on the Alan Brazil Sports Breakfast, said: “When I went in to get my desk tidied [Palace coach] Ronnie Jepson said to me, ‘gaffer they have got somebody else, it can’t as come as quick as that’.
“I suppose in Premier League football they go over a matter of weeks and I know the chairman knows Alan well.
“You'll laugh but when we were at Newcastle for my first game [as Palace boss], Alan was getting so much stick and I remember pulling him after the game and saying, ‘this is the club for you, this is your next club’.
“I only wanted this season to try and help them stabilise after the terrible blow they had when Tony Pulis left. There were no standout candidates and I said to the chairman then that he might as well put me in charge and then wait for one that is going to take the club on and this is it. I think Alan is a great appointment.
“He will be given a long contract, which is needed because the infrastructure at Palace is very poor, Premier League-wise, and he will get the chance [to change things].”
Warnock won just three of his 16 Premier League games in charge in his second spell as Palace boss and left with the club sitting in the bottom three.
But the 66-year-old claims his team were hindered by the terrible state of their Selhurst Park pitch and believes, with that issue soon to be sorted, they can storm up the table under Pardew.
“The pitch has been terrible at home," he said. "When you come and play on it once like the away teams do, it is not bad psychologically.
“We have been reported by every team in the Premier League and that is why it is being ripped up.
“Mentally, the lads couldn’t do the kilometres that they could do away from home. They were miles short, especially our wide players, which is our main threat.
“It was like running on sand on times, so it has hampered them, and that will change now. I still don’t think they are far away. All we wanted was a striker and a left-sided defender.
“I think I can hold my head up with the way we played, with what we had and the tools we had at our disposal. Every manager makes mistakes, but we have given them a fighting chance.
“I think in the fight for survival we have miles more than anybody else. I can even see them going up as high as they did last year, 11th or 12th, with Alan."
Warnock is being linked with a swift return to management with Glasgow Rangers, with the bookmakers making him second favourite to succeed Ally McCoist.
When quizzed on the links to the SPL side, he responded: "Oh my goodness. That's a fantastic club, but I've watched seven episodes of Downton Abbey in the last few days. You miss out on things like that. Things are not all doom and gloom!"